Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

Rating:
Summary: INSIGHTFUL AND HONEST
Review: This was a story full of honest, uncensored introspection. As a fellow bi-racial American woman, I was completely able to relate to her experiences. Although her circumstances were unique, her inner struggles and identity issues resonated with me in a very real way. Not once while reading this book did I feel that something was being kept from me. Her truth was bracing and appreciated. Whatever her motives were for writing this book, she was able to sincerely touch and affect this reader. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever struggled to find the essence of who they are, all the while pretending to already know.

Rating:
Summary: I just don't know
Review: Black, White and Jewish is the story of a young girl blossoming into a woman almost entirely alone. Fortunately for Rebeeca Walker, she had strong intelligence and determination to help her along. Others would have had a much more difficult time.

The prose in this book can really sing at times. Good non-fiction should be heavy on description and this book is careful when it describes place, but also the particulars in that place. We get a beautiful picture of the bedroom where Rebecca and her mother, the famed Alice Walker, sleep in an oversized bed with blood-red curtains. It was a frightening yet endearing scene for a young girl and Walker shares this intimacy.

Also, San Francisco, and New York City come alive in the book. We get vivid details about the parts of each city and other cites. When Walker gets away from personal attachment of a scene, however, then the scene is being described only to show us what it looks like and not its connection to the author's emotional life.

The book shares one way of living biracial in an intolerable world. Walker is careful to never say that is this is a how-to guide; it is nothing of the sort. It's a book of her experiences and her way of coping with the difficulties of growing up biracial.

Father and daughter relationship was fascinating and I was curious to know more about it and especially what caused such a large rift in the relationship. we get the beginning of this situation but not more. Still, this book shares honesty, power, and a woman living, keeping on.

Rating:
Summary: Leave the writing to her mother
Review: Blah blah blah! Sorry, but I was expecting so much more. Maybe I went into this book with a larger expectation for Rebecca, but this is anything but an inspiring story but more of a multi cultural child whining that she had to move a lot. Welcome to the melting pot of America, Rebecca! Be grateful :) Besides the Americana references, dont bother with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the purchase price
Review: I read Black,White and Jewish for the impressions of another "half-breed," to know someone else feels the way I do, because we've both "been there." I'm 43, born biracial before biracial was cool or prevalent. I found a lot I could identify with in this book, and it brought up many forgotten incidents and feelings. For that reason alone, it was worth the purchase price.

Black, White and Jewish is also an interesting commentary on Alice Walker. Reading Ms. Walker's books, I would think she'd be more attentive to her daughter's emotional needs. But what I see is another American woman at a loss when it comes to connecting with her daughter. In many ways, Rebecca's story reads like that of an adult child of divorce. In contrast to her "different" racial status, she remained simply another American teenager, trying to figure out who she is.

I'd like to read Rebecca's story in 10 years after she's (hopefully) had a chance to grow up. It seems she hasn't quite figured out who she is yet.

Rating:
Summary: More Than Her Mother's Daughter
Review: I read this book in a day..I could not put it down and didn't want to. Initially, I got this book because I am a big fan of Alice Walker. However, Rebecca Walker has her own unique and worthwhile voice. Neither her black mother nor her white Jewish father ever had to experience exactly what she experienced and that's what makes this story fascinating. She is neither white nor black, she is simply Rebecca and she tells her very interesting story with compassion and a remarkable lack of great rage. She spins the tale with an extremely mature point of view, not seeming to favor either parent and not seeming to blame one more so than the other. Both parents, like everyone, come across as remarkably human, warts and all. But the difference is that Rebecca Walker also puts forth the very good qualities that exist in both of her parents. This is a refreshing memoir, not at all along the line of "Mommie Dearest" and its imitators, but a true account of a life lived in two worlds and still emerging victorious.

Rating:
Summary: Only Good for the Dish on Alice!
Review: In her powerful, poetic debut, Rebecca Walker speaks from her very soul about trying to find a sense of self in her ever-changing world. Rebecca Walker was considered a "Movement Baby," a child of a black civil rights activist and a white Jewish father who defied the rules and miscegenation laws of the South during the 60's. Her life begins innocently, full of love and a sense of peace, but all this changes with the divorce of her parents. Rebecca spends the remainder of her childhood and teenage years being shuffled back and forth between parents, no longer having a place to call "home." She desperately seeks to fit in somewhere, struggling with her own identity of being black and white, often denying what society has tried to label. Rebecca turned to sex, alcohol, and drugs to mask the pain of a disconnected father, an absent mother, and of not truly belonging to any particular group.

Rebecca Walker introduces us to the pivotal people in her life that molded her into the woman she is today: the Jewish grandmother who denied her, the boyfriend who became her refuge, her best friend she could not say good-bye to, and many others. It is not until later in life after much introspection, Rebecca is able to understand who she really is, and everything she tried to deny earlier in life is actually a part of her.

Rebecca Walker's writing style is fresh and poetic, her words flowing from one page to the next. I could easily relate to Rebecca's pain and sense of not belonging to any particular group while growing up, because I was also a child of two different worlds seeking to find "my place" in an unforgiving society.

BLACK WHITE AND JEWISH is more than an autobiography, it is a journey of love, pain, loss, and forgiveness. It is one woman's journey to embrace her "self."

Reviewed by Michelle Warren
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: Promise unfulfilled
Review: This book looked promising. At first, I didn't realize Rebecca Walker was in any way related to Alice Walker. I picked it up, because it appeared to have a multi-cultural, bi-racial theme: a story about someone growing up bi-racially and multi-culturally. I didn't realize it was going to be about the life and times of Alice Walker's daughter from her perspective as a "movement" child. While she probably wasn't looking for it, she did gain some sympathy from me, but in the end, I felt she was able to get a book deal because of her connections, her privileged background, and I was left empty. I did not get a real feel for who Rebecca is nor for her deeper experiences. Just as she seemed to do with those in her life, I felt she was trying to get attention with shocking tidbits of her life. This book is not a keeper. It has been passed around to a number of my friends, a number also purchased it, and we have all basically been left pretty disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Delighted and Disappointed...
Review: While I was moved almost to the point of tears on several occasions upon reading Walker's novel, I was disappointed with the end. It seems Rebecca has yet to come to terms with her "Shifting self". Walker writes about how she was able to weave in and out of two radically different worlds (the world of her black mother and free-living San Francisco culture, to the world of the white upper middle class New York suburb Jewish culture). She explores the way in which she adapted almost completely to one or the other culture whenever it was needed or expected. However, rather than coming to terms with her rich bi-racial and colorful cultural background and integrating both of these into forming her own unique identity, in my opinion Rebecca chose one identity over the other. Legally changing her name and thus further suppressing her identity from any resemblance of her Jewish and white background deeply saddened me. Although difficult, there are ways of incorporating aspects of both identities into one self - despite the state of racial animosity we live under in this country, both her parents were clearly able to do so. It is clear that Rebecca felt a distinct resentment toward her father and the eventual life he chose to lead; however, as a Jewish American I could not help but feel disappointed that Rebecca chose to identify with one side of her oppressed bi-racial identity over the other. She describes the life of her father, stepmother, half siblings and the culture of Larchmont, NY as privileged, wealthy, racist and generally homogeneous. While all of this may very well be close to the truth, what about being Jewish? What about all of the baggage that goes along with being a religious minority, the legacy of the Holocaust, the anti-Semitism everywhere in this world - what about that struggle? Rebecca seems to clump the "white" experiences of her life into offensive stereotypes of Jewish summer camp, and generalized stereotypes of growing up in suburban NY. She remembers those experiences as so much more of an outsider than the "black" experiences she remembers. In response to a previous review, someone wrote, "the key for me in understanding is that she cannot and will not be contained by neat categories." I could not disagree more with this after finishing this book. Walker is almost all about neat categories particularly when it comes to her "whiteness". Rather than drawing on the unique and rich history and background of her Jewish white self - she tends to wrap that side of her up into neat stereotypes. If I were to analyze her "shifting self" based on reading this book, I would say that it is this process and denial that contributes to, if not causes her confusion as a bi-racial woman and the arduous struggle she recalls in forming and constructing her identity.

All of that said, I cannot help but love this book, as completely opposite as that sounds. Walker's writing is poetic, moving and draws the reader into a world that even if unfamiliar casts a spiritual light on the struggle of bi-racialism in America. I find myself wanting to know everything about Ms. Rebecca Walker after reading this, combing the internet for scraps of information about her life and what she has done since the writing of Black, White and Jewish. I highly recommend this book

Rating:
Summary: Delighted and Disappointed...
Review: While I was moved almost to the point of tears on several occasions upon reading Walker's novel, I was disappointed with the end. It seems Rebecca has yet to come to terms with her "Shifting self". Walker writes about how she was able to weave in and out of two radically different worlds (the world of her black mother and free-living San Francisco culture, to the world of the white upper middle class New York suburb Jewish culture). She explores the way in which she adapted almost completely to one or the other culture whenever it was needed or expected. However, rather than coming to terms with her rich bi-racial and colorful cultural background and integrating both of these into forming her own unique identity, in my opinion Rebecca chose one identity over the other. Legally changing her name and thus further suppressing her identity from any resemblance of her Jewish and white background deeply saddened me. Although difficult, there are ways of incorporating aspects of both identities into one self - despite the state of racial animosity we live under in this country, both her parents were clearly able to do so. It is clear that Rebecca felt a distinct resentment toward her father and the eventual life he chose to lead; however, as a Jewish American I could not help but feel disappointed that Rebecca chose to identify with one side of her oppressed bi-racial identity over the other. She describes the life of her father, stepmother, half siblings and the culture of Larchmont, NY as privileged, wealthy, racist and generally homogeneous. While all of this may very well be close to the truth, what about being Jewish? What about all of the baggage that goes along with being a religious minority, the legacy of the Holocaust, the anti-Semitism everywhere in this world - what about that struggle? Rebecca seems to clump the "white" experiences of her life into offensive stereotypes of Jewish summer camp, and generalized stereotypes of growing up in suburban NY. She remembers those experiences as so much more of an outsider than the "black" experiences she remembers. In response to a previous review, someone wrote, "the key for me in understanding is that she cannot and will not be contained by neat categories." I could not disagree more with this after finishing this book. Walker is almost all about neat categories particularly when it comes to her "whiteness". Rather than drawing on the unique and rich history and background of her Jewish white self - she tends to wrap that side of her up into neat stereotypes. If I were to analyze her "shifting self" based on reading this book, I would say that it is this process and denial that contributes to, if not causes her confusion as a bi-racial woman and the arduous struggle she recalls in forming and constructing her identity.

All of that said, I cannot help but love this book, as completely opposite as that sounds. Walker's writing is poetic, moving and draws the reader into a world that even if unfamiliar casts a spiritual light on the struggle of bi-racialism in America. I find myself wanting to know everything about Ms. Rebecca Walker after reading this, combing the internet for scraps of information about her life and what she has done since the writing of Black, White and Jewish. I highly recommend this book